About the clown show called the United Nations: “Who Put Iran in Charge of Women’s Rights?“, Anne Applebaum, Slate, 3 May 2010 — “The country’s election to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women is a joke.”

The EU/IMF deal will find a majority in the Greek parliament, but last night’s decision by Antonis Samaras, leader of the opposition New Democracy, to vote against the IMF/EU package destroys any hopes of a lasting consensus for reform. It signals a return to the politics as usual at a rather early stage in the adjustment process, and destroys any hope of a national consensus, which is so critical when it comes to the implementation of long-term adjustment programmes. (Remember the IMF said the whole adjustment would take 10 years!) The decision makes it very likely that Greece will not be able to maintain the commitments it made in its negotiations, except in the very short term. See this report in Kathimerini for more details.